Altona mobility scooter theft a low blow

Burglars have stolen a mobility scooter in a seemingly targeted theft from an Altona woman’s house.

Wren Street resident Kate Douglas, pictured, said intruders forced open a locked and bolted double gate to her home overnight on Saturday, before stealing the blue Pride Revo scooter inside a shed. Nothing else was stolen.

“The scooter was in a little bike shed,” Ms Douglas said. “You can’t see it from the street, so that’s why it’s strange – I just wonder if someone had seen me coming in and out on it.”

Ms Douglas, 48, was diagnosed in her 20s with spinal tumors.

“I have trouble walking for very long,” she said. “I’ve pretty much got partial paraplegia in one of my legs from the spinal cord injury.

“Around Altona, I tend to use my electric tricycle.

“It’s just when I get really tired I use the scooter, and I use it to get to work every day and medical appointments because I don’t have a car.”

A blue Pride Revo scooter similar to the one that was stolen. Photo: Supplied

Ms Douglas said she used the scooter to catch the train to work as a textile conservator at the National Gallery of Victoria in Southbank.

“I just feel really hurt,” she said. “I’ve just been so excited in the last couple of months to do a lot of things that I could never do before.

“It just makes me feel really hurt, just sort of shaky and just really sad because I think someone’s seen me coming in and out on the scooter and they decided to come and target it one night.

“They’re worth about $2500. I’m eligible to get one through the government but there’s about a one to two year waiting period.”